Decadent Two Tone Ice Cream Cake

Ahhhh, summer.  End of school.  Picking fruits, going to the beach, going to the park, playground, crafts, library, get togethers with friends and family...  We always celebrate the end of the school year.  (And we also celebrate the beginning of the school year).  I wanted to make an ice cream cake, I thought it would be fun.  Besides it has just been to muggy for baking.  I did a search on the internet for an ice cream cake.  I found some good ones but they were not really kid friendly.  Then there were some that called for Oreos.  While I have nothing against Oreos, in fact it's one of my favorite store bought cookies, I wanted to use what I had. After some research and thought I came up with a plan for the cake. 

You know ice cream cakes are SO EXPENSIVE.  It's really amazing how easy (albeit time consuming) they are to make.  The hardest part is getting the ice cream into layers.

Decadent Two Tone Ice Cream Cake
Of course you can use any flavors you want.  This is merely a guideline of what I did.  Sprinkle nuts in if you like too! You could even do a banana split theme.  The possibilities are endless.

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream
1/2 gallon chocolate ice cream
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
1 stick of butter
1/3 cup dulce de leche or caramel
4 cups rice crispy cereal
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar

equipment needed:
1- 10 inch spring form pan (chill ahead of time if you can)
cookie sheet
plastic wrap
rubber spatula

Melt chocolate in a large bowl with butter- either in the microwave or a double boiler.  Spoon out half of chocolate/ganache mixture into a measuring cup.  Add rice crispy cereal to the chocolate in the large bowl and stir until combined.  Spread out on cookie sheet and let cool.

Take a 10" spring form pan and place plastic wrap on bottom and up sides if you don't want to deal with struggling to get the cake out after it freezes. 

Soften either the chocolate or the vanilla ice cream.  Because the ice cream melts at different rates, you need to spoon the softened ice cream into the spring form pan and place the pan in the freezer until the rest of the ice cream softens.  Once the first layer of ice cream is in, sprinkle the chocolate rice crispy cereal over the top.  Spoon dulce de leche over the crispy chocolate cereal.  With a spoon spread it out as best as you can.  Place pan back in the freezer. 

Place next 1/2 gallon of ice cream on the counter and repeat the process. Once all the ice cream is smoothed into the pan return to the freezer once again. Spread reserved ganache over this layer once it is firmed up.  Finally whip up the heavy cream until frothy, sprinkle in sugar.  Whip until peaks form.  Smooth the whipped cream over the top.  Decorate top at this point if you like.  Return to freezer.

Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving.

Note:  I kept the spring form pan on a cookie sheet because it did dribble out of the pan a little.